A Child's Love
by A Girl Heading Nowhere
Summary: Three children of the crown cope with their mother's death... Or the time when Elia Martell died. (Prequel to Visenya and Aegon : Ten moments)


**A CHILD'S LOVE**

I.

Rhaenys is a girl of ten-and-a-four when her mother is bedridden due to sickness. Within two days her mother passes away and Rhaenys is numb. She does not weep like her younger sister, she does not drink like her younger brother. She just feels numb. A girl grown, she is now the lady of the household until her marriage takes place. Her father had already talked to Lord Robert Baratheon about a potential betrothal with his first born.

Rhaenys remembers her mother's house words. She shall never bow and today she will not bow down to death. She has to be the strong one. She will take care of her younger sister who is barely ten, her brother who has taken up drinking and her father who has turned distant and distant.

The day after her mother's death, Rhaenys starts wearing black. The colour for mourning. The Targaryen colours. It has been decided that their mother's body shall stay here rather than going to Dorne. Her uncle Oberyn and her father had fought for long before her father made it clear that their mother was a Targaryen and so her ashes were to be interred at the Great Sept of Baelor.

The following day, she visits her mother one last time before the burning. Her brother stands vigil with their uncle Oberyn. Her uncle is the one to spot her first and a good man that he is, he forces Aegon to leave so that Rhaenys can be alone. But Rhaenys still stops her uncle.

"I don't know what to do.", she speaks out loud and her uncle turns to her. He may be known as the Red Viper across Westeros, a deadly man never to be crossed but the love he holds for his nieces is the stark opposite.

"Neither do I.", her uncle answers in his Dornish accent. Prince Oberyn has always been her favourite uncle.

"I have not shed a single tear.", she says with disgust because what kind of daughter does not cry for her mother.

"There is nothing wrong with that. We cope in different ways.", he replies and she remembers that he dealt with the death through anger.

Her mother lies there at the alter, dressed not as a Queen but the Princess of Dorne. She wears a purple dress, one her uncle Doran had gifted her mother, hair tied in a simple plait with ornaments and jewellery. A typical Dornish Princess and Rhaenys loves her mother for that. For the fact that despite leaving Dorne physically, she didn't leave Dorne behind. She vows to be as much a Targaryen as she shall be a Baratheon after marriage.

"I never cried for my mother." Her uncle's words draw her out of her musings. "There is nothing wrong with not crying. After all, we are the Martells of Dorne and Dorne has never bred weak souls."

She amends her vow upon hearing him. She promises to be as much a Martell as a Targaryen and Baratheon. "I want to be just like her.", she speaks.

"You are just like her." Her uncles replies and Rhaenys knows that it is a partial lie. She decides to correct him.

"I only look like her." The part that she is not characteristically like her mother is left unsaid.

Her uncle heaves a sigh and says, "You have grown so much within these two days. You may not be like her exactly but she is… was so proud of you. You are her daughter no matter what, now and always."

Her uncle's words make her feel much better and so after laying a quick kiss on her mother's cheeks, she lets him lead her out of the Sept.

II.

A boy of ten-and-a-three (alright, he was still a moon short) preparing for his knighthood under Ser Arthur. That is exactly who Aegon is when his mother falls sick. Of the three children he is the first to know the news and so first to visit his mother.

"Mother.", his voice breaks upon seeing his mother, the Queen, as so weak and pale. Her mother has always been frail, too thin, but this time, this time Aegon knows it different.

"Ae…gon." His mother croaks out and he can feel it in his bones that this time, his mother is not getting up from that bed.

He walks upto her, sits on the bed beside her and finally, finally breaks down. His mother is quick to wrap her arms around him, just like she has done his birth and Aegon wants to stay here, just like this for eternity.

"Hush, my child. I am alright." His mother tells him but he shakes his head furiously, trying to convey to her that he knows she is not alright, he knows what is happening.

"Aegon, please, dear. Don't you cry now." Elia pleads with her son and Aegon finally lifts his head to look at his mother.

"Do not do this mother." Aegon says, never speaking the word 'die' out loud. Speaking it would make it so permanent, so finalising.

His mother strokes his silver hair and murmurs, "So like your father." and Aegon doesn't know whether she says it with pity or with pride. He fears it is pity and sadness.

"Why is this happening?", he asks her because he wants answers. He wants some truth.

"I wish I had all the answers, my dear. But you cannot cry. Do you understand? You have to take care of your sisters. You have to be brave Aegon. You have to be brave." His mother urges and he outright denies it. "I don't want to be brave."

"You don't understand Aegon. You are to be King someday. You will have to be brave and strong. Rhaenys shall never bow." His mother speaks, waiting for him to complete the words but he doesn't.

"Aegon… Rhaenys shall never bow.", she speaks again and this time he answers her, "Aegon shall never bend."

"And Visenya shall never break." His mother finishes and quickly hugs him. She asks for his forgiveness saying she has cursed him since birth and before Aegon can ask her the meaning, the Maester and his father come. He quietly walks out of the room.

He does not visit her again. Not even two days later when news of her death comes. He drinks and drinks until he loses consciousness. Because he cannot deal with this fact. He cannot accept it that his mother is dead. A day after the death, Visenya visits him, all red-eyed and puffy faced.

She calls out to him so weakly that Aegon finally comes out of his state of drunkenness. Visenya, little ten year old Visenya, who has just lost a mother too. But Visenya looks so small, their father's too big cloak, shoulders dropped down, eyes red and Aegon knows that his sister needs him. After all, if their is one person in his life he has come through for, it is his sister.

"Come on in." he answers her and Visenya comes running into his arms, hugging him like her life depends on it.

"She is not coming back, is she?" Visenya asks and Aegon thinks exactly how to answer her. He decides upon truth.

"No. No she isn't." This is the first time he has admitted to this fact and he grips his sister just as tight for comfort.

"She… I discovered her." Visenya tells him and Aegon feels horrible. He feels like he has failed as a brother and a son because he is supposed to be there for his sister, he should have been there beside his mother on her deathbed. He wants to not fail as a son and so he decides to stand vigil for the following day.

III.

All the times Visenya has visited her mother, she is sleeping. It ain't surprising. For the past two days, her mother has spent most of the time sleeping and the remaining in the presence of her father. This is the surprising fact and a truth she never shares with anybody. Her father and mother are dutiful, fond of each other. But she has never seen them this way. The way her father looks at her mother. That is the sole reason that she doesn't intrude to have one last word with their mother. She knows Rhaenys has said her goodbye and Aegon was the first to visit their mother and she wants to have that memory with her mother too. So she finally decides that she will wake her mother up if she has to, but she will talk to her. It is a shame that her mother is sleeping when she visits but this time, this time she doesn't only wake up. At ten, Visenya has yet to grasp the idea of death but the truth that she discovered her mother after her death will haunt her for life.

As the Maester comes in, handmaidens trailing behind, Visenya sits there. Quiet, lost. She is waiting for Aegon, because if there is anybody who will come to take her away from this horrible moment it is her brother. The figure that bends down in front of her is unclear because of the tears in her eyes but she sees silver hair and she knows it is Aegon. She hugs him and lets him pick her up and get out of the chambers. It is only after she has been taken to another chamber that she realises it is not Aegon but her uncle Viserys. She cries and cries and begs him to bring her mother back. She begs her uncle to tell her father to bring her mother back because her father is the King and therefore can do anything. She begs him to bring her mother back and her uncle just holds her. She claws at him, leaves scratches on him because she wants to go back to her mother and shake her awake. Because her mother cannot leave her behind. Her uncle says nothing and holds her until she finally cries herself to sleep. She wakes up in the middle of the night for just a moment and sees a man with silver hair sleeping on the chair. She guesses it is her uncle until she sees the King's crown laying on the table beside her.

The day her mother's body is to be buried, everybody from her uncles to her siblings wear black. She hasn't spotted her father yet but she knows he will wear black too. But her mother would not have wanted that. Her mother was not too fond of black. So Visenya breaks all norms and traditions and wears a purple dress. Not just any purple dress. The purple dress that is exactly identical to the one her mother's body is dressed in. She wears a pin with the Martell House sigil, a pin she has actually stolen from her mother's room and her father's Targaryen cloak. She makes sure she wears her hair the same way her mother did(a simple plait with little ornaments) because today, today, she will stand tall not as the daughter of Rhaegar Targaryen of Dragonstone but as the daughter of Elia Martell of Dorne. Everybody but her father is surprised with her choice of dress.


End file.
